This week's feature in The Royal Gazette on the election issue of poverty and housing focused on a question that does not always get the attention it deserves in wealthy Bermuda.

The facts are that many people struggle to make ends meet as a result of the high cost of living. And as one person quoted in the story said, it is not clear that things have gotten better under the Progressive Labour Party government since it first came to power in 1998, despite strong growth in the economy.

That is something of a surprise, given that the PLP traditionally draws its strength from the poorer segments of the community and represents the labour movement politically, which, after all, has as its mission the betterment of working and living conditions for employees.

But a closer look tends to make sense of this. It should be noted that the PLP, especially when it first came to power was rightly anxious to gain and retain the confidence of the business community. After all, a loss of confidence and thus investment would have had much worse consequences for most Bermudian workers than an attempt to redistribute wealth and so forth.

Secondly, although inflation has remained reasonably low in Bermuda, at least until recent months, where there have been greater increases has tended to be in basic costs like rents, health care and in the last couple of years, fuel and power. These are not luxury items, but essentials, and it is inevitable that they will have a harsher effect on the poor than on the wealthy.

Finally, the Bermuda economy has been going through a radical change since the early 1990s, which broadly speaking has placed a premium on skilled workers to the detriment of the unskilled, who previously could raise money through "hustles" and the like. If anything this change will become more pronounced in the future.

At the same time, the growth in the economy and the consequent demand for non-Bermudian workers to fill vacancies has resulted in competition for housing, transport and so on not only at the top end of the economy but increasingly at the bottom end as well.

So what's been done about it? For much of the PLP's tenure, the answer would be not enough. The Government's failure to get to grips with the housing crisis in its first term has been well documented, and while there has been some progress since, the Government remains behind the eight ball.

Perhaps the only major initiative before 2003 was the decision to put more homes under rent control, which acted as a disincentive to landlords to either put available homes on the market or to build new ones at the lower end.

Since then, Government has begun to move, giving tax breaks for the construction of affordable housing, building more homes either through its own auspices or through private public partnerships and introducing its geared to income scheme.

The United Bermuda Party promises to build 500 new homes and also proposes to waive payroll tax for those earning less than $42,000 a year.

The risk with the geared to income scheme, and to a lesser extent, the tax waiver, is that they may act as disincentives to people to earn more and climb out of the earnings trap, although of the two, the risk may be greater with the geared to income plan.

The real answer to solving the housing problem lies with increasing the supply of homes, especially in Hamilton, where there the real possibility of creating mixed income buildings and complexes exists.

Since demand is unlikely to decline and would only come as a result of a highly undesirable downturn in the economy, increasing supply remains the only long-lasting solution. Anything else is tinkering.

The other answer in alleviating poverty is to improve education and training. Again, as one of the people interviewed this week said, she has to go back to school. But how is a hypothetical single mother of two with bills to pay going to be able to study full time?

Both parties have proposed providing free tuition at the Bermuda College, although the UBP's proposal is more restrictive. But both parties should also consider providing living allowances to qualified students, presumably through a means test, to enable adults to gain further education or retraining without causing drastic economic hardship. In the long run this can only help them and Bermuda and it is an idea that needs to be explored.